My Friday…

 

 

…totally wasted. I slept long in to the morning and the rest of the time I have been browsing the online shops, looking for albums for my LOM-system. It is so difficult to decide on type of album. If I find one I like, size and colour, there are only one left. Of course I could start with one, but can I trust that I will be able to find another one just like it? These days you can`t trust anything.

I do have AC modern albums in 8,5 x 11 size – brown. I would love the lime green but it is hard to find in 12  x 12. Since it is so hard to find the same album in the long run I decided to go for We R Memory Keepers in one colour. They have a nice name plate at the back. But no – the shop only have one or two left.

Now I am leaning towards one colour for each child. What ever type of album – they will probably produce albums in red, brown and blue? At least that is what I think and if I have the courage to hit payment, this is the album I go for:

 

 

The American Craft faux leather. I can`t spend more time with this, so I am going to hit pay and go to work – do my evening shift and try my best not to regret my choice.

Looking back…

…at yesterday and today is so much more fun than I ever thought it would be. I have always loved the “old” photos but I had no idea how fun it would be to put them together with the new ones. This is one of the benefits of organizing my photos according to Stacy Julian`s LOM system. Mixing the photos from years back with the new ones creates a lot of stories. When collecting and organizing photos back in January and February I found 3 photos of my father working outside with his two-year old grandson. The photos are of bad quality and they are taken from the window.

 

Baby Jan was hyper active and was always busy helping out – or doing pranks. He kept his parents and his grandparents busy 24/7…

I have wanted to make a layout with these photos from back in 1981 ever since. Today I was inspired. One of Cathy Zielske`s skethes from Design Your Life was a perfect fit for this. I keep focusing on what Ali Edwards is teaching us in her class. Embrace the imperfection. The pics are blurry and you can`t see their faces but closing my eyes I can see them both clearly.

 

A proud grandfather and a happy little boy. Happy memories. But this would not have been much fun if it weren`t for the fact that looking through my storage binder from August 2009 I found this photo:

The photo is taken from the same window 28 years later. The little helper is now a grown man and he has his own little helper who is eager to help his dad.

As an alumni I will be invited to join Stacy Julian`s Library of Memories class starting in February 2010. I am so thankful for that. I did manage to implement most of her system but it need to be worked with. In fact it needs to be worked with all the time and I have been a slacker these last months. I have done good with printing and I have kept up with my storage albums. February will be just the right time to start pulling photos for my category drawers and emptying some binders.

November 5 Big Picture Scrapbooking opens registration for Cathy Zielske`s Design Your Life running in January, February and March 2010. Take a run for it. You will love this class. As an alumni I can sign up for half the prize. I want to but haven`t decided yet. It is the same class that run in 2008 but this time Cathy has implemented digital templates for all the sketches she is giving in class. This templates are worth the prize alone.

I was so inspired when I took this class that I spent too much time making layouts instead of learning, so it might be a good idea to do the class all over again. And CZ is fun!

Big Picture Scrapbooking…

 

…here`s what I think:

Through out 2009 Big Picture Scrapbooking has prepared me to make this album: Me:The Abridged Version. 

It all started back in January with Wendy Smedley`s class: Get Organized, Be Inspired.

I was so overwhelmed when I started this class. The only way I knew how to deal with the mess was to get the stuff out of my house. Now – nine months later – I have not missed a thing. It is so much easier to work with less stuff. Now I know what I have and where it is.

 

In  February Stacy Julian followed with her class: A Library of Memories.

Stacy does not advice anyone to do these two classes at the same time. Did I listen to her? No, and I am so happy about that.  To set up this system takes a lot of time and effort, but I am so glad I did. I still have a lot of fine tuning to do, but that will happen over time. Thanks to the LOM system, finding photos for my MeTAV album was so easy. They were sitting right there, in the box labeled “All about us” -elin janne. When I needed a photo from a travel I made, I opened the box labeled “Places we go” -Mallorca.

In March and now in September BPS gave us: Telling Stories Deeply -with Karen Grunberg.

I learned so much about writing from Karen. I wrote all the journaling for my MeTAV album. I made a print and I edited. I read through all my entries one more time, with all I learned from Karin in the back of my head, and I wasn`t happy at all. I rewrote every entry!! Thinking about audience and the tone in my writing.

In July Lisa Day challenged us to do The Challenge of ME!  I made a really cute 6×12 album based on Lisa`s prompts. I covered a lot of base making this album and I tried to avoid making repeats in the MeTAV album. Actually I think that was a good thing for me. It gave me more freedom to skip the obvious things.

 

 

 I was so looking forward to do Me; The Abridged Version with Cathy Zielske. I got my album, photos, craft cardstock, photo paper, OP cardstock and ink. The only thing missing was patterned paper. Usually the online shops offers you more paper than you can buy. In September it is mostly all about Christmas.  The only thing I had in my stash was a kit from Crate Paper I had bought with something else in mind.

You will not believe how much time I spent browsing for patterned paper. Nothing was good enough. In the end I had to settle for this. I cut all the pieces – still not happy about my choise. I inked them – still not happy. I moped around for days. The whole album project almost collapsed because of the dam paper.

 

Something changed when I started putting things together. It is just plain cute.

More tomorrow. I have to empty the buckets that collects the rain water dripping from my ceiling. Yepp. There is a leak in the roof. It is all about getting through the stormy night without drowning.

New baby and no photos…

How do I feel about that? I am a little hurt. I am a little pissed. And I know someone who is walking very close to the edge of my last will and testament. That`s okay – someone prefer the life on the edge.

edit; Thanks. You are back on the list.

It`s a cutie!

What else? The Library of Memories class is coming to an end. These last weeks we are supposed to work from our categories. The system is new to me, but I feel that I already have covered the different categories and I know how to work the connections you find along the way.So I am not inspired to work with this right now. I know this is an ongoing process and I`m up to date with my photos. Still have some work to do prior to the digital camera, but I will use the time I need to do that properly.

I am still following Kolette and Jason Hall`s yearlong class; A life Well Crafted. Kolette and Jason have a lot of wisdom to share, but right now I do find it hard to adopt Kolettes projects. For some reason I find it difficult to translate the words to Norwegian. The words and sentiments  that sounds so good in English is just awful in Norwegian. At least  in these parts of Norway. ( We hardly talk Norwegian)

I can see the end of the Load challenge. It`s always hard to hang in there at the end. Suddenly there are no photo`s, even if I got 600 new ones in the mail yesterday. There are no untold stories, even if there are hundreds of them. No paper, no sketches, no embellish, no ideas…. You just got a feeling of burned out at the end. The sad thing is to leave this wonderful group of girls. I have never found a community like this on-line before. They are just great.

Day 23 -Load May 09

Now my sister in law and I have one more thing in common- we are both “super-aunts” – or great aunts, but that sounds really old….

Still no baby brother…

…but who needs a baby brother when you can have new toys…

Okay, this might be a challenge for a two year old – on the other hand maybe he needs a challenge right now.

I finished my Load page numero 18 in the early morning hours. Inspired by yesterdays celebrations I found a photo of Jan taken May 17 1981. Two weeks ago his mother went upstairs looking for the “bunad” he was having on that day. She had it safely put  away in a little suitcase for keep saving. She was not happy when she came downstairs. Someone had been looking for something and left it a heap. I bet that was Jan`s doing. So Kristian could not wear his dad`s “bunad”. He got a brand new one. Thanks to Stacy Julian`s LOM I new where I had the photo and could use the connection in my page today.

Looking at the cute boy in the bottom corner I can see that he wears the “pin” I was given as a baby girl. I cannot remember if it was given to me at my christening or later, but anyway that means it is going on 50 years.

I`m on vacation. Not going anywhere. The only reason I have vacation now is because I must. To be able to do five weeks of vacation this year I have to start sometime. Bottom line – maybe this is a good time for vacation because I went for a little nap at 2 and slept until 7…

The tooth fairy…

…better come to my house tonight or I will be pissed…

I had the worst morning ever. I overslept with two hours and when I finally came in to work, the computers were down and the fax machine had died and I had the longest list that had to be done before I left for the dentist. All in all – this was so bad that putting my feet up in the dentist`s office  to pull three teeth was a piece of cake.

 

 

I wasn`t feeling that good when I came home but I did make my page for the Load May challenge. It is so easy to do this when I have the inspiration that Lain and the group is feeding me. This is one of the layouts I need to do for our People we love – album. I am so glad I put my trust in Stacy Julian when I joined her LOM class. Now my pages have a home and I know what pages that needs to be done.

Now – I gonna take two painkillers and go to bed – to wait for the tooth fairy…

Grandmothers…

I cannot praise the LOM – system enough. I don`t think I would have remembered the photo I had in my album tucked away under a bed. Now I have this photo in a folder on my computer and I have it cropped and ready to be reprinted. You know -1980- glue and scissors was my best friend. I did scan the whole album page before cropping. The girlish notes  from early 80`s is a little cute.

 

The picture taken today; Kristian is having his clothes fitted for the May 17 celebration and grandma Kjellaug makes sure everything is okay. In the corner: Jan - Kristian’s dad is having his clothes fitted while his grandma helps out. In the same house, in the same kitchen and exactly the same spot… In 1980 Kjellaug made the clothes her self – not so much today…

I love making connections like this. Setting up the Library of Memories has been a lot of work, but it is so worth it.

Load May – 09…

Day one…

 

I had a hard time finding inspiration to get creative today. Thanks to Jessica Sprague`s class last night I finally got going. But, I would not have thought of doing this layout without Alijoyc. She was the first one to post in the Load challenge gallery at Flicre today. She made a beautiful layout using the same inspiration. That is the best thing about Load, you find so much inspiration looking in the galllery.

 

And I bet this girl has grown this last week…

It has been a beautiful day with no work. Celebrating our rights as working people. Having a job is a good thing today. And the svineflu, now called the A-flu,  has been detected in Denmark. That does not worry me. Only – I haven`t had the flu since 1983, and one of these days it will be my going down.

It is also 20 years since my father died. That does bring out a lot of happy memories. Looking at that happy little girl helping her grandfather working in the garden points me to a happy little boy, her dad, helping his grandfather in the garden.

Dad and Jan - 27 years ago - in the same garden.

 

It is all about makeing connections like Stacy Julian has been teaching us in her Library of Memories.

Our April flower…

 

 

 

I`m back blogging – I think…

The good thing about taking a break is that you suddenly find time to do other things. I needed time to concentrate on the next step in building The Library of Memories system. Until now I have worked with the last four years. That does not make my category drawers very exciting.  I have worked on emptying old magnetic albums and scanning the photos in case I need to reprint. This takes time, mostly because I enjoy looking at the old photos. Still, the worst part is left to do. The negatives…Since I’m a slow learner I am not looking forward to get that scanner going.

And with all the time I had on my hands I finally decided to do Jessica Sprague’s photo editing lessons. She makes it look so easy and I have no problem following her teaching, but I find it hard to stop myself from hitting auto.

Jessica Sprague.com

Photo album scrapbooking…

Last week`s assignment in the LOM class at BPS was to make a PAS-album. I have made several of this since Stacy Julian`s Have More FUN class last summer. They turn out cute, they are fun to make and making them don`t take much time. Just one problem – the albums are hard to find in Norway.

This is a 1-up album with 100 pages. When I was filling my binders I was looking at 200 pictures from last summers vacation at Viva Bahia – Majorca. For years we didn`t  bring any camera, but looking through my category drawers I found several photos given to me through the years. We have been staying at the same hotel almost every year between 1993 – 2008.

I did not put the pictures from last summer into my binder. Mostly because there were few pictures of people – just the surroundings. The  few I had of us, I put into my category drawers. The rest I placed in a box labeled – ideas for mini albums.

100  pages.60 photos. 40 journal cards. I did not make this chronological. I wrote what came to me and found a picture to go with the story. Now I am ready for tomorrows assignment.